Assistant Professor Shannon Roberts arrived in the UMass Amherst Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department on September 1, 2016, bringing a wealth of experience, research, and expertise, all generated during a relatively short career as an industrial engineering specialist. The Roberts Research Group is focused on studying human factors in transportation safety by: designing and implementing driving feedback systems; analyzing human factors issues of vehicle cybersecurity; studying impaired driving (e.g., drugged driving and distracted driving); using advanced computational models for data analysis; and promoting behavior change using social influence.

Roberts has already published at least 12 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, including a publication on February 6 about “the effect of glance sequence on glance duration” in the journal PLOS ONE![2] In another recent journal article from 2016, Roberts described “measurement of driver calibration and the impact of feedback on drivers’ estimates of performance” in Accident Analysis & Prevention. Also in 2016, Roberts presented a paper on “model-based approach to predicting performance of insider threat detection systems” at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Security and Privacy Workshops.

In addition, Roberts was just awarded $1,000 through the Massachusetts Society of Professors Research Fund to assist in conducting exploratory research with students.

On November 7, 2016, Roberts was a presenter at the MIE Seminar Series, talking about “Engaging Teenage Social Networks to Enhance Driving Safety.” The presentation described “a study designed to reduce the number of teenage traffic fatalities by utilizing a feedback brochure and social influence to alter behavior.”

Among other honors, Roberts has been a U.S. Department of Transportation Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellow, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and a University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate Engineering Research Scholar. She is also a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Transportation Research Board.

Roberts received her B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin Madison in Industrial Engineering. (March 2017)